Masonry walls and strengthener



Oct. 15, 1968 T, M HAYS MSONRY WALLS AND STRENGTHENER Filed April l2, 1967 United States Patent 3,405,491 MASONRY WALLS AN D STRENGTHENER Thomas M. Hays, Pleasantville, NX., assigner to Shure Shaft Company, Pleasantville, N.Y., a partnership Filed Apr. 12, 1967, Ser. No. 630,267 7 Claims. (Cl. 52-236) ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A stilfened masonry wall construction effective for resisting frontal pressure, especially where the wall forms part of an elevator shaft in a tall building and is exposed to bursts of air-pressure produced by various patterns of multiple elevators arriving at the common level of the wall concurrently. The wall integrates two wall sections and a light-weight vertical and vertically adjustable stiffener of two back-to-back sheet-metal channels secured to the building at top and bottom of the wall. Ties extending from the webs of the channels are anchored in the wall sections received between the flanges of the back-to-back channels.

The present invention relates to building construction, particularly to masonry walls and to means for strengthening such walls.

A serious problem arose in the construction of long walls, such as the rear wall of a group of side-by-side elevator shafts or the common wall between two groups of elevator shafts for high-speed elevators in skyscrapers. Such walls are usually made relatively thin, commonly of three-inch building blocks as of gypsum-asbestos, cement, or other material having an acceptable fire resistance. There have been instances of collapse of such walls. The cause was attributed to a sudden build-up of airpressure resulting from all the elevators in the side-byside shafts arriving concurrently at a common floor.

For providing added wall strength to combat this effect, one might resort to thicker walls. However, the added weight would be costly in material, and in the cost of the buildin-g structure that would be needed to support the added weight of thickened walls. This added weight is compounded many times in buildings having many stories.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel strengthened wall construction effective to meet the foregoing difficulties. A further object resides in the provision of a novel, economical, strengthened fire-wall, and a means for strengthening such walls. It might be considered useful to install one or more structural beams vertically, to divide the long Wall into strengthened wall sections. However, any such approach to the problem entails certain high costs. The structural beam itself is expensive. Further, the ire code requires all structural steel to be spray-coated with heat insulation. Finally, the added loading represented by such steel members could require so much support as to do away with one story on top of fty stories. Otherwise, the whole structure would have to be strengthened, at additional cost.

Accordingly, a further object resides in providing a novel form of wall construction and wall strengthener that is economical but effective, and which avoids the foregoing difficulties.

Summary of the disclosure In achieving the foregoing objects, the illustrative embodiment of the invention described below involves a back-to-back pair of sheet-metal channels secured together. A fastener at the top of one channel and another fastener at the bottom of the other channel are -xed to the upper and lower beams of a story. The channels have flanges that snugly receive sections of the Wall, and wall 3,405,491 Patented Oct. 15, 1968 ICC ties attached to the channel extend into the mortar between building blocks of the wall.

The same strengtheners can be used for various heights of walls, as established by the separation between each upper and lower pair of beams. This is because tne channels can be adjusted relative to each other vertically and in this way the total length of the two-channel unit can be adjusted to fit a wide range of heights between an upper beam and a lower beam. The ywall ties are readily bent along the channels and then outward to enter the mortar between successive rows of building block. This arrangement of the wall ties accommodates variations in the adjusted channel positions and it also accommodates variations in levels of the motar that is to receive the successive ties of each channel.

The nature of the invention and its further features and objects, and others, will be better understood from the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment which is shown in the accompanying drawings forming part of the disclosure.

`In the drawings:

FIGURES 1 and 2 are diagrammatic illustrations of conventional building construction drawn to `greatly reduced scale, showing a fire-wall between two groups of elevator shafts and illustrating a particularly advantageous application of the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary lateral elevation of a wall strengthener embodying features of the invention, parts being broken away and parts being shown in cross-section for clarity;

FIGURE 4 is an elevation of a portion of a fire-wall embodying features of the invention, showing portions of two wall sections and incorporating a wall strengthener of the form in FIG. 3; and

FIGURE 5 is a horizontal cross-section of a portion of FIG. 4 including the wall strengthener of FIG. 3, drawn to larger scale.

Turning now to the drawings and in particular to FIGS. 1 and 2, six elevator shafts S are diagrammatically repreysented by broken lines, three in a row at each side of a lire-wall 10" between structural walls 12 of a skyscraper. Fire-wall 10 fills the space between an upper beam 14 and a lower beam 16. This represents one story of the skyscraper. These beams may be concreted steel, for example.

According to customary practice, the wall 10 is made of building blocks three inches thick, held together by mortar. Such a wall is united to structural walls 12, and to the supporting beams. In cases where walls 12 are close, to accommodate a single elevator shaft, the usual tire-wall construction has proved satisfactory. However, where the lire-wall is elongated, as in the case of two side-by-side shafts, and particularly where there are three or more side-by-side shafts, there is a danger of collapse of the firewall. This is apparently caused by a sudden build-up of air pressure caused by travel of high-speed elevators. This pressure build-up evidently occurs when all the elevators at one side of the fire-wall reach a particular story simultaneously. All the elevators may be moving, or one may be at rest, or they may be mov-ing toward a particular story from the same direction at different speeds or from opposite directions. In any case, the build-up of air pressure at times is so great as to cause a long lire-wall to co1- lapse.

This problem has been solved with great success pursuant to a feature of the invention by dividing the lire-Wall into sections that are, for example, equal to the width of a shaft S, and interposing wall strengtheners between the wall sections, securing the wall strengtheners to the top and bottom beams at relatively close points. An exemplary 3 form of such strengtheners is shown separately in FIG. 3 Iand installed as part of a wall in FIGS. 4 and 5.

A wall strengthener as seen in FIGS. 3-5 includes twO channels 18 and 20 of sheet metal, secured together backto-back by any suitable means such as self-tapping screws 22, nuts and bolts, pop-rivets or the like. The channels have opposed side flanges 18a and 20a, respectively. A fastener 24 in the form of a strip of heavy-gage sheet metal is united as by spot-Welding to the upper end of channel 18, and a like fastener is united to the lower end of channel 20. A plurality of wall ties 26 are fixed to the 'base of each channel at points spaced apart to correspond with the spacing between building blocks. Wall ties 26 are shown as strips of .metal having corrugations or the like, to become anchored in the mortar of a masonry wall.

Channels 18 and 20 are secured by their fasteners 24 to upper and lower beams 14 and 16. Fasteners 24 are bent so that they extend against the beams, and they are fixed to the beams in any suitable manner, as with concrete nails. Ties 26 are bent outward at the levels of the mortar during erection of the wall sections.

As supplied, channels 18 and 20 are alike, and they are separate. After the lower channel is in place, the upper channel is adjusted lengthwise -to accommodate the particular height of beam 14, and they are fixed together by whatever means proves convenient on the job site. Selftapping screws can be used. Pre-formed holes might be used, but preferably holes are drilled as needed. The lengthwise adjustment makes possible the use of a standard length of channel for various beam spacings varying over a wide range.

After the separators are in place, the building blocks are laid. As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, building blocks 28 as of gypsum-and-asbestos are shown forming wall sections 30 and 32, the blocks 2-8 fitting snugly between the flanges of the channels. Mortar may be used if desired to fill the space between the blocks and the base of each channel, as shown in FIG. 5. The wall ties 26 extend into the mortar between certain building blocks at various levels established by the blocks and the mort-ar. Ties 26 are adjusted to these mortar levels by laying a portion of each tie along its channel, and bending it out at the required level, as the building blocks are built up.

Wall strengtheners 18, are of sheet-metal, 16-gage for example, and thus add very little to the weight of the wall. They are not considered structural members, and therefore they need no fire-protecting spray-on covering. Channels 18 and 20 are readily secured together in any adjusted relation, and accordingly they can be of standard size for a wide range of wall heights. Despite the seemingly frail character of the sheet-metal wall-strengthening members 18, 20, they have proved highly successful in meeting the problem of collapsing walls of high-speed elevators shafts effectively and economically. Of course, they may be used to advantage in other walls.

The foregoing detailed description represents a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, but obviously it may be modified and variously applied by those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention should be construed broadly in accordance with its full spirit and scope.

What is claimed is:

1. In a building construction, vertically spaced upper and lower supporting surfaces, a longitudinally adjustable vertical wall stiffener extending between and secured to said supporting surfaces, a fastener` at each of the opposite ends of the wall stifiener securing the stitfener in position between said vertically spaced upper and lower supporting surfaces, said stiffener comprising a pair of sheet-metal channels each having a pair of substantially parallel flanges joined in spaced relation by a web, said channels being disposed in back-to-back relation, means securing said webs together 'and thereby securing said channels together in vertically adjusted relation, and wall sections extending between said vertically spaced supporting surfaces and projecting into the channels on opposite sides of said stilfener, and vertically spaced ties secured within each channel and projecting outwardly, said ties being secured to said wall sections, said fianges lying against the opposite faces of said wall sections.

2. A building construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said channels are off-set vertically, one end of one of said channels being close to the upper supporting surface and being fixed thereto by one of said fasteners, and one end of the other one of said channels being close to the lower supporting surface and being fixed thereto by the other of said fasteners.

3. A building construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said wall sections are of building blocks united by mortar, and wherein said wall ties extend into the mortar between adjacent building blocks and are anchored therein.

4. A building construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said wall sections are of building blocks united by mortar, said ties being metal strips extending into the mortar between ladjacent building `blocks and being anchored therein, said channels being mutually off-set vertically, one end of one of said channels being close to the upper supporting surface and being fixed thereto by one of said fasteners, and one end of the other of said channels being close to said lower supporting surface and being fixed thereto by the other of said fasteners.

5. A building construction in accordance with claim 1, forming the rear wall of a group of shafts for high-speed elevators in a skyscraper, said wall sections being too thin in the absence of said wall stiffener to withstand the occasional momentary build-up of air pressure that develops when all the elevators at one side of the wall arrive at said Wall concurrently.

6. A building construction in accord-ance with claim 1, wherein the sheet-metal forming said channels is of the order of 16-gage.

7. A building construction in accordance with claim 1, wherein said wall sections yare of building blocks united by mortar, said ties being metal strips extending into the mortar between adjacent -building blocks and being anchored therein, said channels being mutually off-set vertically, one end of one of said channels being close to the upper supporting surface and being fixed thereto by one of said fasteners, and one end of the other of said channels being close to said lower supporting surface and being fixed thereto by the other of said fasteners, the sheet-metal forming said channels being of the order of 16-gage.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 839,015 12/1906 Loomis 52-241 1,184,373 5/1916 Olberg 52-215 1,188,959 6/ 1916 McAlamey 52-495 l2,174,844 10/ 1939 Sedore 52--215 3,228,161 1/1966 McCown 52-285 2,058,386 10/ 1936 Parsons 52-481 FOREIGN PATENTS 68,188 4/ 1958 France.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner. 

